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Thursday, March 11, 2010

Greece Is Another Nation That Has Been Bankrupted By Wall Street, Goldman Sachs, and The International Financial Organizations

Greece is another country that has been invaded by Wall Street and international financial criminal syndicates, especially Goldman Sachs, who have manipulated the currency, sold fraudulent "investment" schemes, and bankrupt the country and most of its people. Now the International Financial Institutions are demanding that Greece cut all social services for its people and raise taxes on the basic stuff of life, to raise money to pay back the International Financial Criminals.

Unlike in the U.S., the people in Greece are getting themselves organized and getting out in the streets to fight back.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Clashes between riot police and rock-throwing, masked youths broke out during a demonstration Thursday in central Athens by tens of thousands of striking workers protesting austerity measures that the Greek government has said it has no choice but to implement.

The debt-ridden country is under intense pressure from both markets and the European Union to reduce its deficit from 12.7 percent of economic output in 2009 to 8.7 percent this year. Last week, Greece introduced a harsh $6.5 billion austerity package that cut civil servants' wages, froze pensions and raised consumer taxes.

The new cutbacks, added to a previous $15.24 billion austerity plan, sparked a wave of strikes and protests from labor unions whose reaction to the initial measures had been muted. Thursday's 24-hour general strike, the second in about a week, grounded airline flights, halted public transport, suspended news broadcasts and left public hospitals working with emergency staff.

While their colleagues clashed with groups of protesters in Athens, some police joined the demonstration.

"The police and other security forces have been particularly hard hit by the new measures because our salaries are very low," said Yiannis Fanariotis, general secretary of one police association, who was among some 200 uniformed police, coast guard and fire brigade officers, who cannot strike but can hold protests.

He said the average policeman made about $1,360-$1,635 a month, if weekend and night shifts were included.

"The reduction in our salaries has reached 30 percent," said coast guard Lt. Giorgos Dirvakos. "And if we figure into that the increase in taxes, every family of a coast guard, police officer and firefighter will see its income reduced to 8,000 euros ($10,900) annually."